Australian Filmmaker, Luketic, Discusses Miramax "Booberini" Pact

Australian Filmmaker, Luketic, Discusses Miramax "Booberini" Pact

“Titsiana Booberini“, a short film by Australian filmmaker Robert Luketic,will be made into a full-length musical comedy at Miramax as part of anoverall three-picture deal that the writer-director has signed with theIndieWood studio. In a telephone conversation with indieWIRE yesterday,the twenty-six year old Luketic discussed the deal from his apartment inSydney.

The eleven minute film short is a hilarious musical set in a supermarket. The titlecharacter, an awkward acting and awkward looking check-out girl played byactress Tania Lacy, undergoes a transformation as she sings and dances herway down the supermarket aisles. Lacy will reprise her role in the featurefilm version. The film played a handful of film festivals, including lastyear’s Telluride Film Festival and Sundance in January. It debuted at a festin Brisbane and won “Best Short” prizes at the Santa Barbara Film Festivaland the Aspen Short Fest.

Sydney-born Luketic, who has been making films since he was fifteen,graduated from the National film school in Melbourne. The filmmaker explainedthat he approached Australian cult celebrity Tania Lacy after spotting herat a coffee house and wrote the part especially for the actress. Then, in thefall of ’97 at Telluride, the film generated immediate interest fromattending industry and Luketic met with UTA‘s Howard Cohen and ultimatelysigned with the agency. Shortly thereafter, the filmmaker met withJimmy Miller of the Gold/Miller Company and the outfit as his managers;the company will executive produce the film. Miramax west coast Director ofAcquisitions Matt Brodlie and Director of Development Robbie Brenner broughtthe short to the attention of Miramax brass and will oversee production ofthe project.

Luketic is excited to be working with Miramax, based on their strongreputation down under. “Here in Australia the perception of Miramax isthat they’re a very cool kind of studio that really understands the filmmakingprocess,” Luketic told indieWIRE. Ultimately, the filmmaker explained thatas suprpised as he is about his recent success, he is thrilled at theopportunities before him. While he realizes that “the reality for a lot ofemerging filmmakers is that its a longer harder road”, he confirmed that heremains confident in his abilities. According to Luketic, while the featurescript is in the first draft stage, Miramax has the project on the “fast track”for production.